New mental health funding from the Ontario government will help local professionals do a better job of treating people with opioid addictions, the head of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health Services said Tuesday.

“(It) allows us to provide more and better services to the folks in Lanark, Leeds and Grenville.”

In particular, added Dube, the new cash infusion will give more people access to those services.

Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark on Tuesday announced the Ford government’s new funding for mental health and addictions services.

Locally, Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health Services will receive $535,429 to support programs, including $100,000 for opiods addiction treatment and services, noted a statement from the Progressive Conservative MPP’s office.

Children’s Mental Health of Leeds and Grenville will also receive $54,475.

In a prepared statement, Clark said the funding is designed to improve Ontario’s mental health care system, which is disconnected and too often makes it difficult for patients and families to get the care and services they need.

“Too many Ontarians wait too long for the mental health and addictions services they desperately need. This fragmented approach to care is failing Ontario’s families and is simply not good enough,” said Clark.

The MPP, who is also municipal affairs minister, added the government will be making this additional funding available every year.

Clark added the investments are part of the government’s commitment to invest $3.8 billion, over the next decade, in a “comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions strategy.”

Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health Services, which has an annual budget of about $12 million, operates opioid rapid-access clinics in Brockville, Gananoque, Smiths Falls and Carleton Place, said Dube.

The new funding will allow the agency to expand the number of days those clinics operate, as well as people’s access to mental health and addictions professionals available at those sites, she added.

Some of the money will also go to help “priority populations,” including members of the LGBTQ population, while another portion of the new funding will support programs dealing with mental health in relation to the justice system, said Dube.

The agency works with police and other officials in the justice system to ensure people with mental health issues are not needlessly “languishing in jail,” she said.

Some of the funding might also go toward rent supplements in supportive housing.

Dube added the new funding will provide “the ability to serve people at the right time.”